THE WICKED HUNT
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November 3, 2020

EP 1 – How I rediscover love of life through photography

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The Art of Photography Podcast Ep 1 – How I rediscover the love of life through photography

 

Hey Wicked Hunters!

Welcome to my very first episode of The Art of Photography Podcast.

This podcast will consist of content that helps you discover happiness through photography. Whether it’s learning, looking for inspiration or simply hearing other passionate photographers journey, stories and adventures. In this episode, I share with you my journey, how I found and fall in love with photography and transformed my life. 

Let me know in the comment below your favourite part of this episode and how my journey resonates with you.

Watch Video Podcast and subscribe on

https://bit.ly/TWHYouTubeChannel 

Don’t forget to let us know your favourite part of the Podcast on the comment below and subscribe

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Transcription:

Stanley Aryanto – The Wicked Hunt  0:00  
If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you’re about to do today?

Hey, we get hunters Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the Art of Photography podcast, where you will learn, inspired and fall in love with photography all over again. So, my name is Luca Hunter Stanley, and I am very, very excited to bring to you this very first episode of podcast. So forgive me for the imperfection. Because, hey, this is the first time I’m doing it. And, you know, if I do such a good job right now, I’m gonna be struggling to try to top this one out. So maybe it’s a good thing for myself. Yeah, so I just want to talk to you, I want to share with you why I put together this podcast, this podcast is mainly going to be around the art of photography, and why we love photography so much. I think in this very difficult time. A lot of people need hopes and need more positivity in their life. You know, all we need to do is to put so much positive things out there that we smother those negative things that is happening around the world right now. You know, at the end of the day, photography has made me happy has transformed my life. And I want to share that with you. So the different things that I will covered in this podcast is things that you can learn from the things that you can improve your photography with some tips, tips and tricks, and so forth. Because at the end of the day, if you are doing well in photography, the chances are you will enjoy it. Then I want to share with you some of my journey, my travel my adventure so so is other people adventures, to bring you an inspiration and motivation for you to get go out there to shoot more and to appreciate the beauty all around us. And lastly, I will bring a lot of different people are well, mostly photographers to share with you their passion in photography, you know, photography is such a wide niche, you know, from abstract to illustrative to wildlife, to sports to actions. So I would love to share all of that with you, from my guests. And hopefully they can show you a little bit about what they’re passionate about and why they’re passionate about that particular part of photography. All right, so let’s jump into today’s podcast. So today podcast, I want to talk to you. I want to share with you my journey. How I fell in love with photography and how photography have transformed my life. I remember in my bathroom mirror, I used to have Steve Jobs quote, if, if today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you’re about to do today? I used to wake up. And I used to look at that code every single day. And actually, I would read it out loud. And for a longest time the answer was no. And you know, over time, I started changing the way I do things, the way I approach things and I always think back to that to that quote and always think, okay, if this was last day of my life, what would unlike to do more and, you know, slowly but surely that started to change. So for those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Stanley Arya anto. I was born in Indonesia, and I moved to Los Angeles two years for middle school in Venice Beach, actually very close to Venice Beach, Mark Twain Middle School. And it was pretty cool time. I really love it. That’s how I got into skateboarding. And that’s kind of how, where my passion for snowboarding kind of come from. So from there, I went back to Indonesia, in Bandung, it’s a capital city of West Java. And after I finished my high school, I went to Australia to study mechanical engineering. At that time, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, but engineering was kind of make sense. You know, I like cars. I like mechanical stuff. And I thought, well, mechanical engineering is kind of, you know, on that path. So it was one of the reason why I choose it and And actually the biggest reason why I chose it, because back then I wanted to do so many things. I wanted to do political science, I wanted to do psychology, I wanted to do architecture. But engineering is actually the shortest amount of times you need to study to get the most

amount of pay at the end of the of that bachelor degree. Yeah, so all we need is for four years, and we are an engineer, and well as you know, our architecture and the psychology, they have to do apprenticeship and internship and, you know, master degrees and so forth. So yeah, at the end of that, I thought, you know, I thought I do engineering, I was never really good student, actually, I was used to skip class all the time and tell my my mom and dad, because they might be, they might, we won’t be happy about this. But my friends would know, because I would ask my friend to sign in for me when they go to, to lecture. So kids, if you’re a home, don’t follow me go to school, go to your lecture. And yeah, get better at it. But yeah, I managed to pass engineering. barely pass engineering, actually, the last one of the last exam, I got 49, which technically failed, but they pumped me up to 50. And give me a conceit considered pass. I think that’s what they call it. And I was. So that’s, that’s how I got my bachelor degrees. And when I, as soon as I graduated, I was looking for a job for a few months. And it was hard to come by, you know, one of the reasons why I took engineering in Australia was the mining sector at that time was booming. So everyone says, you know, as soon as you before you graduate, you have like, a whole bunch of offer. And then, you know, I was like, that sounds great. Anyway, I couldn’t find any jobs. So what I have done was, I apply for massage degree. And, you know, I don’t know if I was going to be accepted, because I wasn’t such a good student, but I managed to get in. So luckily, halfway through my master’s degree, I got an offer from one of the aluminium company in Australia. Man, you have no idea how happy I was, you know, I, when I got the call, it was so weird, because I didn’t even know what’s there. You know, who they are. And the only thing that I asked them was like, You guys gonna send me a confirmation letter, right? And then they’re like, yeah, we’ll send you a confirmation letter with all this was like, sweet because I did not know who they are, where they were, what’s their address, and so forth. But long story short, that’s how I get to engineering. Now. When I get to, when I started my, my role as an engineer, I actually really enjoy it. You know, it was a different role. Like any other engineering, I don’t sit behind a computer all day, I actually get out there, I get to see like, massive, massive, you know, mechanic stuff that went wrong, that get ripped apart, it was actually pretty cool. So I was quite happy then. And for a little while, life was great. You know, it was perfect. I got I got a great job. I got good life, you know, good disposable income. And the turning point was when I had a bad breakup with my girlfriend at a time, you know, it was, it was really weird. Looking back, it was like, it’s not really that big of a deal. But that was probably one of the hardest time of my life, probably not because of the experience that I’ve gone through. But because I don’t know how to deal with it. You know, long story short, I was trying to get out, I was trying to run away, I was just like, man, like, I need to do something different. And travelling was one of the thing that, you know, like running away, jump on a plane. And travel was one of the thing that I did. At that time, my my grandma was my grandma’s birthday was coming up, and I thought, well, I’ll spare an extra days or a couple of days in Bali. I’ve got a few friends there. So it was kind of like it was good. I get to see them. At the same times when they’re at work. I get to do my own thing, meeting new new friends, make new friends and do different things that give me a different experience. And that was how I fell in love with travel. Believe it or not, I used to hate travelling I feel like it was a waste of time and money. I used to always want you know, the only thing that I want in life was having a nice car, a nice house, a good job. And that was that was that was the goal. But you know I fell in love with travel and Um, yeah, I, you know, weekend trip in Bali turned into 10 days in Japan, and eventually I went for five week trips, we call it the road to Oktoberfest, it was it was pretty cool trip.

So when with a couple other mates there, and at that time, during my travel, I would take photo with my phone, just to document my travel, travel, you know, it’s like, oh, went to Vietnam, and you got this scooter with this massive thing behind there’s, you know, massive tank behind their back. And they’re like, just taking that from one place to another, you know, the things that you don’t get to see in, in Australia. Right. So that was pretty cool. You know, just document that thing and, and share it with your friends and family. But when I go to Europe, you know, it was it was a longer trip. And I thought, Okay, well, I want to take this a little bit seriously, I want to I want to think about a photo that I take and take a better photo because I realise that you know, out of the, you know, 500 or 600, or even a few 1000s photos that I took, there was only a few, that’s great. So it’s like, you know, like, it’s great that I get to capture all this scenery or memory, you know, snapshot of my travel, but they don’t really do its justice, it didn’t really translate the experience that I had the stories that I was, you know, I get to see the story that I want to share. So I brought a pocket camera, a G 12, lead capture roll fall. So it was it was pretty good at that time. I’ve got my GoPro and couple other action camera. And actually, that was the very first time I took photography seriously. The first day we got there, or maybe it was the second day we got to London got into the hostel. And I remember, at nighttime, I took my pocket camera, rented disliked bicycle on the side of the road and just start riding around town. I didn’t even have a tripod back then. So what I did was, I would I would put my camera either on, like, you know anything like a rubbish bin, or, you know, a ledge or a bridge, and I would like start my wallet stuff with coin just to try to make it even. Yeah, that was a it was a good good time. But that was the spark of you know, photography. Because after that trip, I was like, wow, you know, like the photo that I actually put an effort in, I get to enjoy it more I, I had the pride to share it with my friends and family and they can actually see and understand the experience or, you know, part of the experience that I was going through. And I thought that was that was great. So the next trip I had plan was to go to the Middle East. That was the Africa in Europe and then go to Middle East Jordan. In Yeah. Next to Israel there. So this time, I thought, Okay, I want to I want to take my photography to the next level. You know, my dad love photography. And the funny thing is, I always stay away from, from what he you know, every time he tried to teach me or every time he taught photography, I was just staying out of it. I was like, You know what, it’s too expensive to bulky. It’s impractical. I don’t, I don’t think I will get into that I don’t even want to know. So funnily enough, even though my dad loves like photography, I actually never picked that thing from him, you know, until I started taking this photography seriously. So I borrow my dad, just an entry level mirrorless he was, it was pretty good mirrorless but it was quite old at that time. It was the Olympus EPL five. So he let me borrow that and he let me borrow his five d mark three and the lenses I thought was like, five these massive and I don’t really want to break it’s expensive. So I brought the five, the EPL five, you know, I take a lot more effort I take my time I compose I think about what I was going to shoot during that trip. And as a result, I’ve got a lot, a lot better success capturing, you know, a better photo or a photo that actually represent the experience and the beauty that I was experiencing that day. Anyway, that was kind of the biggest turning point because that time just before the trip, I saw this photo of milkyway really nice composition. I wish I would have saved that photo because that was definitely one thing that really changed me My, that turnaround, my love for photography. So So I got when I go to Morocco was like travelling take a photo and one of my friend who’s on the trip or someone, my friend who I met on the trip,

showed me another photo of the Milky Way. And I was like, Yeah, I know, I want to be able to take photo like that. And that was it, you know, like, that was that was, that was my motivation, I knew I want to, I want to be able to do that. And the other thing that really, really pushed me was that I made a travel photographer who also he just quit, he’s just left his job. His name is John grey. So look it up, his photos are amazing. But yeah, he’s he’s probably a few years in front of me, he had, you know, a lot more experience, he had travelled a little bit more, and he actually had left his job at that time while I’m still, you know, working full time. So, when I got back, I was happy, I was able to capture more great photos, something that actually represent the beauty. And we went to the Sahara Desert, and it was so beautiful. And I was glad I was, I was able to capture a portion of that, and went to Petra, which was just incredible. But I feel like he’s something missing is just not good enough. You know. So I took my dad’s five d mark for Mark Three at that time. And I was just walking around the city. I remember, I went to a popular place to shoot, which is the bell tower in, in Western Australia, I took my first shot, and I was just men, I am sold, I want to take photo and I want this camera to capture this photo. So that was my inspiration and my motivation to get to, it wasn’t really, that, you know, at that time, I wasn’t even thinking about travelling full time as a photographer, but I was just I want to be able to capture more photo like this, I was I was I felt like I have achieved something, you know, I was so proud of myself. And from that day forward, photography has given me a little bit more purpose in my life. You know, I would at that time, you know, before that I was was really, it was really hard to wake up to go to work. And when after this day, I would wake up half an hour on an hour earlier to go to a different spot for sunrise before I go to work. And after work, I would go to a different spot and capture more sunset. Sometimes I’m not back home until nine. And if you look at some of my storm chasing in Perth, I actually was up until like three o’clock in the morning and it had like two hour sleep where I need to drive an hour and a half the next day to the refinery. So yeah, that was that was the very beginning journey of my love for photography and how it started to transform my my life, it had given me purpose. You know, since then on for travel was much more enjoyable because it become more purposeful, you know, I want to not only see the beauty that the world has to offer, but I want to capture them and I want to share them and inspire others, I want to be that photo that inspired me to, to pick up this camera and take a better photo, right. And that was the big thing for me. So after that trip, you know, I knew I wanted to pursue this further at this time have made my my you know further along the line, I made my decision that I was going to quit my job because I wanted to travel not necessarily to become a photographer, but I just want to travel I want to see more of the world. Because you know, quite frankly, if our staying stay in engineering one half the time to see what or an experience the thing that I want to see an experience in my lifetime. And one thing that really tires me, you know, working for corporate, everything was driven by money. And even though you’re passionate about a different niche in that in that work as a mechanical engineer, more often than not, I would not be able to work on that particular project because I was needed as well as where, which you know, I understand that’s how the company works right. But at the same time, that wasn’t how I envisioned my life to be. So I rented my house. I have, you know, Tim Ferriss book to thank me for this the four hour Work Week, because he said, You know, I know you’re scared, but all you have to do is try it out. So that’s how I how I did it. I tried, you know, 10 days, five weeks, and so forth. And also, he say, you know, list everything that you’re scared off and think about what’s the worst that could happen? And when I did that, I was like,

You know what? I’ll be fine. Yeah, long, long story short. I was hesitating to leave my job. It was scary to leave a safe monthly income. But my roommate and my friend at that time, Megan, she would be angry if she heard this in a colour roommate. Well, yeah, Megan would say, you know, like, You should do it, like, you know, you should just go and do it. And I was like, Oh, I had a whole bunch of excuse. At that time was, I was about to our two years away from my long service leave. And I was like, Maybe I should wait for this. You know what, the time is not worth it, you should do it now. Anyway, long story short, I was there, I was giving my resignation letter to my, my boss. And the day I left the refinery, I flew to Indonesia, and I spent I spent four months in Indonesia, and sorry, two months in Indonesia, and I travel all around Australia, it was 40,000 kilometres around Australia, in four months. And it was great. It was one of the best time of my life. And during that time, I was able to capture a photo of my dream, you know, the photo that I was always envisioning now is like, Okay, I want to be able to take a photo like that. And I was actually able to capture that photo. And yeah, 2018 was, was a interesting year, because even though I got I got two awards, that your end to awards was the photo that was I really dream up. You know, before the trip, I knew where I need to go. And I knew the type of photo that I want to get in, but the same times, I was I almost laugh, photography, back to engineering, because I was also frustrated, you know, I submitted a whole bunch of mode of photo to competition hours, spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars for that to get recognition. And also to understand that I was on the right path. But out of all that it was only two that I got back. So I was I was quite scared, you know. But that was the year of my transformation. I actually reached out to one of the winner and he share me a few words of his wisdom. And it was the time where I understand that photography is not about your camera. It’s not about capturing other people vision. But you know, at that time, I used to look at Instagram, and I used to go like, Okay, I’m gonna go there. I want to take photo exactly like this, you know, this is amazing. But photography is more than that photography is about expressing yourself. You know, it’s the freedom that you get, you can take any kind of photos, why would you take anyone else photo? You know? Same with life, you know, if you can live your own life, where would you live? Where would you live a life of someone else, right? So ever since then, you know, Instagram was no longer an example. But it’s more of an inspiration, I would look at the places that I would visit, I would look at the photos. And I was like, Okay, these are great. So the first thing I would do get there, it’s like, I would take a photo exactly like it. And then the next thing like, how can I make this different and better. And ever since that my you know, I was able to get to go from two awards to 23 awards in 2019. So it was it was a big, big change in my photography journey. But, you know, I started this journey, because I wanted to travel more and I wanted to take more of a great photo, right? But that kind of transformed when I got to Lake Louise. You know, I work in this in this photography store, and I had to do like photo lesson and that really sparked my interest in teaching people and I knew I wanted to teach more from my days as a consultant of business improvement because at that time I had to teach people and I would have to mentor mentor them on the new system, the business change and so forth. And I love I love being able to inspires people to improve their life, I feel like I am making an impact in this world.

So that’s where I changed my mindset about, you know, photography, I no longer only want to take great photos, but I want to inspire others, I want to motivate others, I want to help other people to take beautiful photo too. Because the great thing about photography is everyone has different perspective, everyone have different vision and have different eyes, you know, so even though we go to the same place, the photo that can that come out from two different persons camera could be totally different. And that really excites me. I like how to see other people perspective and learn from that, you know, what, what can I take from the, you know, what am I missing? How can I improve my photography from that different perspective? What can I learn from that? So, so yeah, so here I am right now, standing in, or sitting in front of you, you know, sharing and trying to help other people to get better in photography. And I think my ultimate goal is, you know, along along my journey, as a photographer, I started photography, because I love taking photos, I love the feeling to be able to capture a great photo. But eventually that kind of shifted because of the era of social media and the status quo. And I was pressed and I was pushed to capture this. What do you call it, like, you know, this popular Instagram photos, and for reason, there, I cannot lose my passion. And I was just trying to take more off this Instagram like photos, right? And in that 2018, that’s where like the shift was back on was I realised that, you know, I take a photo for myself, not for these people, if they like it, that’s great. If not, there is it’s not worth for me to sacrificing my joy in my life or photography, just to get the likes. So I really shifted a lot from that. And in this, in this series of podcasts, in this podcast of the art of photography, I want to do just that, I want to show you that you don’t have to follow other people path, you can follow your own path, you have a great perspective, a great vision. And, you know, even though in the beginning, I absolutely agree, you might need to follow other people path first, before you can find your own style. But you will need to outgrow that, you know, I would love to see your new perspective, a different one, even though people say it’s, it’s you know, it doesn’t look great. Well, you know, who are they to say that right? At the end of the day photography is an art. And you know, art is about interpretation. And I think it’s it would be very sad if you know, an interpretation of art is or put into one category of what’s good and what’s bad. So this is why I do this podcast. And this is how I want to be able to help you to learn to take better photos, but more importantly, to inspire you and to motivate you to become a photographer of who you are to be able to express yourself and tell your story to photography, photography. You know, I will be here to mentor you to you know, teach you the technical details. But at the end of the day, this is just the tool I want you to be able to express yourself through this tool. Yeah, so hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode. And if you do enjoy this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe. Let me know which part of this of my journey resonates with you. And which part you feel could help you fall in love with photography as well you know or fall in love with photography further, I suppose. Because if you are here, I know you already you already find out that photography brings you happiness. Alright, so yeah, this episode will be released every single every week on Tuesday and on the very odd week, I might release a second episode. But I am excited to have you here and thanks a lot for listening. And I can’t wait to see you again next week.

 

The Wicked Hunt by Stanley Aryanto Copyright 2020 All rights reserved.

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